Annika Burnett 10

How Reed changed me: I was an underconfident and overachieving shy girl from southern California who thought LA was a normal city. Reed taught me how to think critically, intellectually, and academically. It also gave me the tools to question the use of words like “critical,” “intellectual,” and “academic,” to analyze how those words are constructed in the context of race, class, and gender, and to unpack the assumptions they hold.

Influential book:Public Vows, by Nancy Cott.

Cool stuff I did: Organic chemistry. Public Policy Lecture Series Committee. Sexual Assault Task Force. Feminist Student Union. Volunteered at Outside In. Built community. Figured out how to do well in my classes and stay healthy and sane at the same time.

Adviser: Prof. Tamara Metz

Thesis: Feminism, Freedom, and iPLEDGE: A Social Constructivist Approach to Accutane Regulation

What it’s about: I draw on the political theory of Nancy Hirschmann to illuminate the ways in which iPLEDGE, an FDA-sponsored restrictedaccess program designed to prevent fetal exposure to isotretinoin, shapes women’s subjectivity, choice, and freedom.

What it’s really about: Why women shouldn’t have to pee in a cup for The Man.